RUSSIA
Silenced Russian journalist Yuri Bagrov is engaged in a war of
nerves with the country's Federal Security Service – and so far the
reporter is losing the battle. Russian police prevented Bagrov from
covering the first anniversary of the Beslan school hostage tragedy
(pictured). The police told Bagrov – a reporter for the US
government-funded Radio Liberty, and previously the Associated Press –
that he did not have proper accreditation to cover the ceremony. Last
August, Bagrov's passport and press credentials were stripped from him
by a Russian court, meaning he is unable to leave his home town of
Vladikavkaz.
The Boston Globe reports that Bagrov is facing a campaign of
intimidation by the authorities – his pregnant wife has received
threatening phone calls suggesting that her husband is
dead. www.boston.com/news
IRAN
Reporter Massoud Bastani has been sent back to Arak prison in Iran –
just one week after his initial release. Bastani had spent two weeks in
Evin prison after reporting on a demonstration in support of imprisoned
fellow journalist Akbar Ganji, who was on hunger strike at the
time. Bastani is the former editor of Nedai Eslahat and is a
contributor to pro-reform papers including Etemad and
Toseeh. www.rsf.org
UNITED STATES
Internet search engine Yahoo has hired veteran television
correspondent Kevin Sites to produce a multimedia website that will
report on wars around the world. The site, www.hotzone.yahoo.com, will
focus on Sites's travels as a war correspondent and will use nearly
every kind of format that the internet allows. The site launches on 26
September. Speaking to the New York Times, Yahoo executive Lloyd Braun
denied this venture means that Yahoo is building a news organisation.
Instead, he said, the company is hoping to develop signature
programming in all areas. www.nytimes.com
UGANDA
After Major General Kahinda Otaflire crashed his car last Saturday,
a passing journalist who stopped to help was stunned when the Minister
of Water, Lands and Environment pulled a gun on him. Daily Monitor
photojournalist Mike Odongkara was held at gunpoint by Otaflire and
then manhandled by police, called to the scene by the minister.
Otaflire later claimed he drew the pistol in selfdefence after seeing
the flashbulbs from Odongkara's camera. Witnesses report that
after the journalist took his second picture, Otaflire sprung out at
him with the gun aloft. www.allafrica.com
ITALY
The journalist seized by masked gunmen in the town of Deir el-Balah
in the central Gaza Strip has been released. Nabil Sha'th, the
Palestinian Authority's foreign minister, has confirmed that Italian
reporter Lorenzo Cremonesi has been released. Cremonesi, who
writes for the newspaper Corriere della Serra, was pulled out of the
car he was travelling in with his interpreter by five masked gunmen and
driven towards the Nusseirat refugee camp. www.reuters.co.uk
